They Came to Baghdad by Agatha Christie

They Came to Baghdad by Agatha Christie ISBN-13: 9780007154937 Paperback: 364 pages Publisher: HarperCollins Released: January 1951; 2003

Source: Borrowed from my local library.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
Baghdad is holding a secret superpower summit, but the word is out, and an underground organization in the Middle East is plotting to sabotage the talks.

Into this explosive situation appears Victoria Jones, a young woman with a yearning for adventure who gets more than she bargains for when a wounded spy dies in her hotel room. Can Victoria make sense of his dying words: Lucifer…Basrah…Lefarge.…


My Review:
They Came to Baghdad is a historical thriller set in 1951 in England, Baghdad, and some surrounding areas. It was written as a contemporary novel, and the setting and political backdrop was only described briefly. The descriptions were more about the human interactions than describing the places for future readers.

The story is about an impulsive young woman whose main skills are thinking on her feet and lying convincingly. She finds a way to follow her "Romeo" to Baghdad only to land in the middle of a struggle between a group trying to destroy upcoming peace-promoting talks and government spies trying to stop them. Only it's not always clear who is on which side. It's a bit improbable in some ways, but it was fun watching clever Victoria just managing to get out of one scrape after another while figuring out what the dying spy meant.

There was a minor amount of bad language. There was no sex. Overall, I'd recommend this fun novel.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


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